Anonymous expert compilation, analysis, and reporting. </end editorial> Short update on Russia’s domestic woes, and divisions; Turkmenistan, Belarus; Iran – tanker release by Gibraltar, reports Russia gains naval basing rights in Gulf, Israel, Syria, Kashmir updates; DPRK, RoK, China, Japan, SWPA updates; UK-US and Brexit updates, Germany, miscellaneous Europe reports,  Russia signs naval basing deal… Continue reading Russia / Strategy Ad Hoc Media Update (96)

Last week’s events concerning the pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign Can’t see images?https://preview.pg.mlsend.com/j8p9d9 Topics of the Week The phishing attack on Russia-watchers was more successful than initially believed. European Values Think-Tank was among those targeted. US Senate is negligent to pass election defence bills that could help against malign foreign interference. Finite State’s investigation shows the cybersecurity… Continue reading Kremlin Watch Briefing: Russia watchers targeted by a sophisticated cyber-attack

The author does a commendable job trying to simplify Russian Information Strategy down to: deflect, deny, and discredit.   The unfortunately thing about trying to create a Three-D mantra to describe Russia’s information strategy is adequately describing the depth and the breadth of what Russia actually does.  You could also use deception, detract, damage, destroy, and other… Continue reading Putin’s European waltz in 3D: deflect, deny, discredit

Anonymous expert compilation, analysis, and reporting. </end editorial> Muscovy’s little aerial stunt over the Baltic Sea has been a successful media distraction – interesting how some splicing of telephoto lens footage can deceive so many media folk in the West. By far Russia’s biggest media accomplishment has been the nuclear “Flying Chernobyl” FUBAR, in every… Continue reading Ukraine / Russia Ad Hoc Media Update (256)

By Sarah Rainsford BBC News, Moscow 3 August 2019 Lyubov Sobol shuffles slowly these days when she walks, leaning on a colleague’s arm for support. After almost three weeks refusing food she says she feels dizzy and weak but determined to go on with her protest. The young lawyer and popular video blogger is one of… Continue reading Lyubov Sobol: The woman driving Russia’s opposition protests

By JAKE RUDNITSKY, ILYA ARKHIPOV AND STEPAN KRAVCHENKO | Bloomberg | Published: August 6, 2019 For years, opposition leader Alexey Navalny embarrassed Russia’s leadership with YouTube videos exposing their lavish lifestyles and dubious wealth, and the Kremlin put up with it. Now President Vladimir Putin’s patience appears to have run out. With Navalny in prison… Continue reading Kremlin strikes back at anti-graft leader who taunted Putin allies

Author: EU East StratCom Task Force Penetration of the information space by pro-Kremlin actors goes far beyond using state-funded media or a troll factory. As shown in the new report by Info Ops Polska, disinformation messages can be spread by multiple actors using a variety of tools – so that at the end of the day, its… Continue reading Kremlin’s “information laundering”: Lie, manipulate, spread, change, spread again

Putin’s rating crashing. Disapproval ri According to a Levada.ru survey, it appears Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating appears to be at a low and continuing to crash. Source: https://www.levada.ru/en/ratings/

In an amazing piece of terrible journalism, Newsweek published this article,RUSSIA ACCUSES U.S. OF POLITICAL MEDDLING BY PROMOTING ANTI-PUTIN PROTESTS, written by DAVID BRENNAN.  Besides the title being in all caps, the article contained Russian disinformation.   The article below from Polygraph.info, a USAGM product, published yesterday, clearly shows the posted map warned readers to… Continue reading Newsweek Echoes Russian Disinformation

Russia appears to be on track to replicate Soviet tactics of endless loops of provocation, denial, accusation of provocation,  increase in aggressive posture, and so on.  Highly provocative missile tests by Russian submarines in port are only in response to increased Western radar surveillance, they’re certainly not intended as a provocation, says Russian Foreign Ministry… Continue reading Russian Rhetorical Tactics Mirror Soviets

“Demonstrating without a permit” is the catch-all phrase meaning ‘we’ll never give you a permit, so just quit.  When we arrest you we will beat you as we do, we will beat you as we drag you to our paddy wagons, we will beat you in our jails, and we will just beat you when… Continue reading Moscow authorities vow tough action against any new protest

This latest sanction is because Russia is not cooperating in the Skripal Assassination Attempt investigation.  Russia hasn’t cooperated, Russia is not cooperating, and Russia will not cooperate.  Everybody believes Russia committed the CW attack on the Skripals, all the Russians have done is deny with a plethora of alternative theories.  Russia is doing the dance… Continue reading U.S. Imposes New Sanctions on Russia over Skripal Poisoning

This picture of 17 year old Olga Misik, reading the Russian constitution out-loud, is a weapon, a tool, that is “breaking the internet”, being used by as a “symbol of resistance”, is “going viral”, and will surely cause angst to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian authorities.  After reading the Russian constitution to remind the… Continue reading Putin’s Biggest Problem, 17 Year Old Olga Misik

Good article by Peter Pomerantsev, author of “Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia“.  When I read the book, my head literally hurt from the cognitive dissonance I experienced.  Peter makes a good case for why we need to counter “malign information”.   His approach should be inculcated… Continue reading The disinformation age: a revolution in propaganda

July 30, 2019 Paul Goble By Paul Goble Russians live in one of two different countries depending on whether their view of it comes from television or from the Internet, countries are so “strikingly” at odds with one another that those whose views are formed exclusively by one find it hard to understand or even… Continue reading Paul Goble: Russia Today Is Two Countries One Defined By TV And One By Internet

I admit weakness. I could not help myself.  Rarely does a headline write itself so artfully, yet it is absolutely legal by even George Carlin standards.  I am thinking of the seven dirty words of George Carlin, of course. How George Carlin’s ‘Seven Words’ Changed Legal History Seven dirty words – Wikipedia George Carlin –… Continue reading You Don’t Know Shchit

Anytime a GPS’s entire network is rendered inoperable, one should examine the reasons why with a modicum of cynicism.   In this article, the EU’s GPS network was brought down by a malfunctioning ground system.   Now that a known weakness in the system has been identified, it is imperative that the EU not only… Continue reading EW? Cyber? Glitch? What broke a UK satellite for a week?

Anonymous expert compilation, analysis, and reporting. The article, William R. Graham, R. James Woolsey & Peter Pry | The Criticality of EMP Protection Guidelines | RealClearDefense, addresses my single greatest fear – an EMP attack. Life as we know it would cease to exist, and it would be a slow, lingering death for millions. I… Continue reading Ukraine / Russia Ad Hoc Media Update (239)

July 27, 2019 By Polygraph Murad Gazdiev Reporter, RT International “The Mueller report did not provide any proof of the troll factory’s ties with the U.S. election interference.” Source: RT False The Mueller report contains 30 pages of detailed information about the Russian “troll factory” activities that resulted in a grand jury indictment. During live… Continue reading RT host denies credibility of Mueller indictment against Russian troll factory

Read the entire article, it is worth the time and effort.  Moscow and Russia have been deliberately cowed into submission.  The fact that we are seeing protests of 8,000 and 20,000 people indicates that the authorities do not have the iron grip they believe they have, thus the protests can conceivably grow until the authorities… Continue reading Putin Regime Relies Less on Direct Use of Force than on ‘Moral Corruption,’ Skobov Says

MOSCOW (AP) — Nearly 1,400 people were detained in a violent police crackdown on an opposition protest in Moscow, a Russian group that monitors police arrests said Sunday, adding that was the largest number of detentions at a rally in the Russian capital this decade. OVD-Info, which has monitored the arrests since 2011, said the… Continue reading Nearly 1,400 detained in Moscow protest; largest in decade

If you’re interested in Russia, you’ll love Steve Gutterman’s Week In Russia. RFE/RL’s news editor dissects some of the key developments over the previous week and offers some of the takeaways going forward. Every Friday, direct to your in-box. Click here to subscribe View this e-mail in your browser right here! or share this content… Continue reading RFE/RL: Steve Gutterman’s Week In Russia — July 26, 2019

July 25, 2019 20:19 GMT By Mark Raczkiewycz WASHINGTON — Russia’s Prosecutor-General’s Office says it is designating Washington-based think tank the Atlantic Council, formerly run by the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, as an “undesirable” organization, a move that could potentially limit the group’s cooperation with Russian entities and prevent its employees from entering Russia. “Upon… Continue reading Russia Labels Atlantic Council Think Tank In Washington ‘Undesirable’

Topics of the Week Major FSB contractor hacking reveals Kremlin insecurities in intelligence gathering How the Kremlin uses the railway sector to expand its foreign influence US Intel Committee questions social media companies about deep fakes ahead of 2020 election A new report by the Atlantic Council’s DFRlab: Operation Secondary Infektion Good Old Soviet Joke… Continue reading Kremlin Watch Briefing: Kremlin’s influence operations from cyber-space to infrastructure projects